The Flavor
by Jinhito
Summary: Because Aiko has experienced every single one. Sukitte ii na yo is an unlicensed Japanese manga by Hazuki Kanae.
1. Sweet

**title:** the flavor  
**series:** 好きっていいなよ say i love you  
**summary:** because aiko has experienced every single one  
**note: **sukitte ii na yo is an unlicensed japanese manga by hazuki kanae; the lyric introductions are from various artists 

* * *

**sweet**  
_you don't get something for nothing - it could be sweet_

She sticks the last bobby-pin in her red, red hair. This is a new look for her and the feeling is thrilling. The color resembles something akin to her namesake and she smiles demurely at her reflection staring back at her from the mirror.

It's still a shock to her fourteen year old heart that some boy - a handsome nineteen year old at that - would ask her, of all people, out. It's like a dream, has to be a dream and she looks back down at all the newly purchased cosmetics on the bathroom counter. She's spent nearly a fortune on these and new clothes, her trip to the beauty salon... but it's all going to be worth it! She just knows!

Applying eyeshadow isn't too hard, but blending it is somewhat tricky. Aiko's secretly grateful that she shelled out a few extra yen to have the esthetician demonstrate how to properly use all the products at the time of purchase. The liquid foundation disguises any imperfections and the new flawless pale appearance of skin makes the roundness of her face seem a little more elegant. Likewise, the mascara she struggles to brush over her lashes is worth all the effort in the end when her hazel eyes appear twice the size.

Perfect. Well, maybe not quite, but pretty close! She thinks the more she does this, the better she'll soon get. He likes cute girls, he told her so. So she'll become the cutest girl he's ever seen!

She dumps all of the cosmetics into an empty bathroom drawer and rushes out to her bedroom to finish getting dressed.

When she's finally ready to leave she passes by one last mirror at the entryway of her home. She stops and admires the person she's created. Make-up, clothes, hair dye... all of those things finally overcame the awful ugly person she felt she was before. Chubbiness aside, this beautiful _earnest_ girl staring back at her... is not someone she readily recognizes. And that's exactly how she'll have him see her for their first date.

Aiko walks out of her front door with a lip gloss in hand, something she threw into her purse before she began this whole self transformation process; the make-up artist had said that glossy gorgeous lips were the most important finishing touch to any new look.

She wants to be all of that and **more**.

As she applies the gloss, smoothing the lacquer over her lightly chapped lips, some of it accidentally gets into her mouth. She's still a bit clumsy it seems, but she certainly can't be seen having anything mar her pretty smile. She hurriedly licks it off and marvels at how the cherry flavor is faintly sweet even though the product was never designed to be ingested.

She hopes he'll kiss her tonight.


	2. Salty

**title:** the flavor  
**series:** 好きっていいなよ say i love you  
**summary:** because aiko has experienced every single one  
**note:**sukitte ii na yo is an unlicensed japanese manga by hazuki kanae; the lyric introductions are from various artists

* * *

**salty**  
_sleek and deep and salty sweet, you open up in me_

"My boyfriend..." she sobs, arms wrapped so tightly around his neck that it's almost hard to breathe. It hurts nowhere near as much as the pain in his heart watching her cry like this.

Aiko has always been his friend, he thinks, since the day they first met. She's not a popular girl, some don't even think she's that pretty just because she's a little overweight, but Yamato tends to see things in others that people often overlook. It's not about how she appears on the outside to him, it's what's inside her that matters most. The lifelong struggle of wanting acceptance and being accepted have made her a truly beautiful girl.

It's hard when she's the only who can't see that.

"He cheated on me!" she cries, yelling in a way where it's as though even she still can't believe it. She manages between heaves that she caught him cheating on her with one of her friends Natsu, Natsu-chan of all people! How could she do something so cruel? How could she betray their five year friendship over something so stupid as a date?

"They... they must've been laughing at me behind my back!" Aiko squeezes Yamato tighter. It's difficult to believe that bad people can exist. It's even more difficult to wrap your mind around how they could do you so wrong when they played the role of someone meaningful once upon a time.

"I did so much for Haruki..."

She's right. Yamato has noticed over the past few weeks the loss in weight, the faint traces of acne and pimples that are a direct result from her overuse of make-up, how she won't spend time with anyone because she's always waiting for her boyfriend, for him, that cheating bastard Haruki.

"No matter how hard I try, I'll never win against cute girls."

He brings his hand up to rest on her back and tries to soothe some of the hurt away. She tells him then that all men are the same and that she must be some kind of idiot to expect them to be any less. He asks her why she would say such a thing when they both know that Aiko's anything but foolish.

"You put in your best effort for the guy you liked. Don't punish yourself for that," he moves her away from far enough so that they can talk face to face. "You're very _pure_," he's referring to her intentions, "compared to other girls, you're better."

He's not wholly wrong, she just hurts so much right now that it's all too hard to believe when the person that she loved most, the person she'd been hoping would love **her** just as much, went and abandoned her without even a second consideration to any of those qualities she may or may not possess.

Yamato's not a bad person, he gains nothing in lying to her after all... then he tells her that he thinks she's very pretty both because she needs to hear it and because he means every word he's ever said to her.

It angers her. Infuriates her in a way that even the breakup hadn't. She yells at him, tells him to shut up, and then she asks him to sleep with her; the actual request comes out sounding much more crude than intended.

"I'm... I'm pretty, right? So if it's like that, then you should be able to!"

This time she's the one who pushes him away, she needs to see the reaction, his facial expression, she needs to see him reject her in the way her boyfriend couldn't. Yamato's never lied to her before, but she needs to witness it now, to prove to herself that she was right! That bastards are **always** bastards and-

"Of course," he doesn't even hesitate before saying it. This isn't what she was expecting, this wasn't how it was supposed to be! He removes his hands from her, and asks her one last question before they begin.

"But doing it like this... will it make _your heart_ feel beautiful?"

This person looking at her, Yamato looking back up at her, the emotions in his eyes with everything barred open and accepting, absolutely no trace of pity or sympathy in his words, just real love and honest deep concern reflected on her... she suddenly feels tears beginning to well up again and as they run down her cheeks they catch at the corners of her mouth.

"Yes," she lies and stares at him now completely vindicated, "it will."

That night both Aiko and Yamato lose their virginity in ways that they had not anticipated. There are many regrets they will later have in life, but never will Aiko be angry with herself for taking something so precious, so undeserved from a boy who once truly loved her.


	3. Sour

**title:** the flavor  
**series:** 好きっていいなよ say i love you  
**summary:** because aiko has experienced every single one  
**note:**sukitte ii na yo is an unlicensed japanese manga by hazuki kanae; the lyric introductions are from various artists

* * *

**sour**  
_she was a sour girl the day that she met me_

Masashi... may not be a bad person either.

He might actually be very nice. Aiko's spent the last half hour of class fiddling with the note she got in her locker earlier that morning. It's simple plain paper, almost looks like he ripped it out of a notebook on a whim. But what it looks like and what it says are two very different things.

_I like you._

"Tsu... ki. Da. Yo," she quietly reads each hiragana aloud. His handwriting is kind of sloppy, maybe he was just nervous. She slips it back under her workbook and looks up at the clock displayed over the chalkboard. Twelve twenty-four. Six minutes till homeroom ends and then thirty minutes of lunch.

She can't remember what period he's been assigned for study hall so maybe he won't be in the cafeteria at the same time she'll be, but if he were she still wouldn't know what to say to him anyway. It's really a no win situation.

A month has passed since her breakup with Haruki. And just how the heartache was sloppy and messy and completely unexpected, so was the sex she'd had with Kurosawa Yamato. She's been thinking about it more and more lately, how he tenderly held her and kissed her despite all the tears. Truthfully, the whole event wasn't very pleasant, but it's still the sweetest memory of her love life thus far.

Yamato means so much to her, the things he's done for her; _given up_ for her... she's not sure if she'll ever be able repay him. But maybe... and this is where things start to get a little complicated...

_You're very pure... compared to other girls, you're better._

She's been admiring him since then, more than she should. And though they still talk about a lot of things as good friends are apt to, they have yet to fully discuss what went on that night. He said that she was beautiful. He even made her feel that she was; maybe because of him her heart **has** become more beautiful.

So why does she still feel so awful inside? He won't return those quiet forlorn glances though she knows he sees them, and he won't give her answers to questions they both know she's too afraid to ask. Something like courage is still missing, but maybe this Masashi can help.

It's probably kind of cruel using someone else for this type of sport; she slides a corner of the note back out from under her book and rereads the characters again. But if she wants Yamato to love her in the same way that she loves him, it may be worth the sacrifice.

The school bell rings just as she finally resolves that she will allow herself to accept Masashi's affections, but only as a substitute until she gets a chance at real love.


	4. Bitter

**title:** the flavor  
**series:** 好きっていいなよ say i love you  
**summary:** because aiko has experienced every single one  
**note:**sukitte ii na yo is an unlicensed japanese manga by hazuki kanae; the lyric introductions are from various artists 

* * *

**bitter**  
_sweet heart, bitter heart, now i can't tell you apart_

Seeing them, it makes her sick.

Being forced to come to the same school, day in and day out, should be torture enough... but life is actually more cruel; all three of them also share the same class schedule.

Aiko digs through her purse and snatches up a small sucker, something she pilfered from a club display sometime last week during the annual school festival. It's artificial cherry flavor and she purses her lips in sudden disgust. She hasn't really cared for that flavor since a certain incident, even the poor substitutes found in medicines can easily unsettle her stomach.

But it'll have to do for now, she skipped lunch earlier and thinking too much about everything else in her life going wrong is just a little too much for her nerves. The sugar might help pick her up, if only until Masashi comes to pick her up her after the last bell rings.

She pulls the wrapper off quietly, sitting at the back of the room has it's advantages. Turning to look out the window, Aiko inconspicuously plops the sucker into her mouth. She almost gags when the hard-candy begins to mix with her saliva, but not a sound is heard above the teacher finishing up his lecture.

The things she said to Masashi earlier... she didn't really mean them. She says a lot of hurtful things to that boy, but he'll always keep coming back to her. They've been this way for almost two years now, and if he's too dumb to run away from her then she's smart enough to exploit that. But they were rather harsh things... no guy would find that kind of attitude attractive... especially not Yamato.

"Tch!" Aiko can feel her brow beginning to crease. All this annoyance over Tachibana Mei and Kurosawa Yamato, it's going to give her wrinkles! And after she worked so hard to look this pretty... she stares out a nearby window until the bell rings.

On her way out into the hallway, she bumps into a measly looking freshman in a hurry to make it to the last class of the day. Aiko doesn't even bother to spare her an apology, instead she takes the sucker out of her mouth and blatantly tells the younger looking girl that their collision hurt her.

The other girl tries to fumble up some kind of sentence that sounds like excuse mebut it's hard with Aiko's deadpan stare boring into her. Before she can make a comment about how a kouhai should properly treat their senpais, someone unexpected interrupts.

"Aiko!" it shouts from somewhere across the hall.

"Don't be so mean."

It's Yamato. Her guilty heart speeds up its beat. Then she sees Mei. They're so damn close they may as well be fucking holding hands.

Instead of saying anything, Aiko crushes the remnants of her sucker in her mouth and enjoys the feel of the jagged candy pieces as they explode onto her tongue and the inside of her cheek.

"Yamat_ooo~_!" she pushes the remaining paper stick to one side of her mouth, "wanna come sleep with me?"

Now that's **mean**. She's goading him on purpose because nothing can hurt more than reminding your current infatuation that they've already been with somebody else. It visibly upsets him, but Aiko barely has any time to relish the reaction before Mei silently slips her hand into Yamato's.

Seeing them, it makes her sick. The sweetness of the candy can't even cover up the bitter bile rising in the back of her throat.


End file.
